First Football Game

     Since a group of friends from my church were going to the first football game of the season this Saturday, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to have my first college football game experience. I had no desire to go last year, but this year I felt like it was one of those quintessential college experiences that I should have. I guess it was fairly quintessential, but I learned that "quintessential" doesn't necessarily mean "fun" or "would do it again". It was pretty much exactly like I thought it would be: long and boring, with lots of cheering and chanting and watching the cheerleaders wave their pom poms and the band march around the field in their ridiculous uniforms. There were lots of girls wearing mutilated Temple t-shirts, and yep, the girl in front of us at the game had to leave about an hour in because she was so drunk. Classic. Also, weed is now legal in Philly so that was an occasional smell wafting on the breeze. Aside from all that, it was a great group of people to go with who made the four hours there not as torturous as they would be otherwise. And we won! We were ahead until the fourth quarter, when we tied and then got three more points in the last two minutes, setting the final score at 16-13. For some reason the freshman guy from our church who came with us (the only guy and the only freshman...poor kid) decided to wear a Drexel shirt to the game and he got so much flack for it. His excuse was "I don't have a Temple shirt". But that's no excuse to wear the shirt of another college! Kids these days... Also, there was this one guy cheerleader who was literally SO unenthusiastic about the game and cheering and life in general and he was an absolute joy to watch. He was my spirit animal during that game. He reminded me of what my brother would be like as a cheerleader (and for anyone who knows my brother, they can picture how truly awful that would be). He didn't smile the entire time and when it would come time to chant or cheer something he would mouth the words so half-heartedly his lips would barely move and anytime there were arm movements required in the cheers, he would keep his limbs as close to his body as possible while still technically performing the right motions. He was my favorite part of the whole game. Oh, and seeing that our mascot had sweated through both the thick owl costume AND the jersey the owl wears...that was disturbing but vastly entertaining too.
     Overall, since the ticket and transportation to the game were free and it was a truly glorious almost-fall day, I'd say the experience was worth it in the long run, just to say that I have indeed been to a college football game. But I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.

-SE Wagner